


Undeveloped

by ClagJanetSMK



Series: A Pandemic Alphabet [21]
Category: Scarecrow and Mrs. King
Genre: 2020 Lockdown Stories, Even though it's 2021 now, Family Fluff, Other, U is for Undeveloped
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 13:34:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29385663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClagJanetSMK/pseuds/ClagJanetSMK
Summary: "When in doubt, try patience" seems to be a key strategy for Amanda. Lee tests it out, hoping to turn negatives into positives.
Series: A Pandemic Alphabet [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2031118
Kudos: 1





	Undeveloped

**Author's Note:**

> This doesn't mess with canon, but like many people, I consider "One Flew East" to be the last episode in Season 4 so this is set in that universe. Many thanks to Lanie and Ellie who both helped me so much as I tried to wrestle this one into the shape I wanted.

Amanda hadn't actually had to forbid Jamie from bringing the encyclopedia to the table, but it was a close thing. Completely immersed in the article on how cameras worked to put the image on film, he had joined them for dinner unwillingly and not before reading the whole thing right through. Once at the table, he had continued to pepper Lee with questions about photography that he couldn't answer. Lee had finally held up his hands in surrender and admitted laughingly that as a "director", he relied entirely on people with better knowledge to translate his ideas onto film.

"Like Amanda," Dotty had enthused. "You always said the minor in photojournalism would get you places, Darling! And it got you a wonderful job and a boyfriend!"

Only Lee noticed the slight flicker of emotion that went over Jamie's face at that. He couldn't place it – it wasn't annoyance or distaste; Jamie just looked a little _lost_.

"What I want to know," interrupted Phillip who had become interested despite himself, "is how do they get the photo from that weird negative thing? It's all just dark where it should be light and light where it should be dark and then somehow it's on the paper? How does that work?"

"I bet that's in the encyclopedia too!" exclaimed Jamie, starting to get up from the table in his enthusiasm.

Amanda grabbed his arm and forced him back down. "It'll keep until after dinner," she admonished him. "The encyclopedia isn't going anywhere." She looked across the table at Lee. "You've created a monster."

"Well, that's given me another idea," said Lee. "How would you like to get some hands-on experience with that?'

"What do you mean, Mr. Stetson?"

"Well, I know a guy," Lee began.

"Of course you do," murmured Amanda.

"And he's a pal and he -" Lee ignored Amanda's soft "Of course he is" and continued to speak over her. "He has a darkroom in his house and I bet if I asked him, he'd be happy to show you exactly how that works."

"Really?" exclaimed Jamie excitedly. "That sounds awesome! When could we go?"

"Not until Lee has asked his friend and not until the weekend _and_ not until you have finished all your homework," replied Amanda.

"Okay," whooped Jamie. He twisted to face Lee. "Can you call him now?"

"Let me just finish my dessert, huh?" responded Lee with a grin. He met Amanda's smile across the table and gave her a quick wink. Operation Patience was well underway.

* * *

"Okay, you guys ready to learn the secrets of photographic witchcraft?"

The second Lee had seen Jamie's face light up with interest at Phillip's question, he'd known he was going to be calling Jake. A long-time friend from their days running around Air Force bases as kids, Jake was also Lee's go-to guy for developing film that he didn't want to run through either the IFF labs or the Photo Hut guy at the mall; most often times when Lee was undercover and couldn't risk either of those. Forewarned that neither of the boys knew about his and Amanda's double life, Jake had been happy to show the aspiring photographer the ropes of developing and printing photos, although not before several minutes of teasing Lee about his new family life during the call.

Jamie was trying to look cool and calm, but Lee knew he was excited to be here. He'd started the car ride over here quietly but then the questions had begun, getting more and more detailed as they went, and now that they were here, faced with an actual darkroom, he'd gone quiet again, overwhelmed and a little bit awestruck. Fortunately, Jake was the kind of guy who took that in stride and after a quick joking back and forth with Lee, he'd led Jamie straight over to the equipment and begun explaining it all. No one could have doubted Jamie was spellbound and even Phillip was managing to not ping-pong around a room full of chemicals.

"So what kind of film did you bring?" asked Jake. "You did black and white like I told Lee, right? It's easiest to learn how to do that first because colour film is pretty tricky."

"I did and I shot a whole roll of stuff with my friends with the camera Mr. Stetson loaned me," said Jamie, holding it up with a shy expression.

"Actually, I brought an old one I found when I was cleaning out my old apartment to move," Lee interrupted, reaching into his pocket. "It was at the back of a drawer which means it's probably just location photos and stuff that I didn't need. Why don't you start with one of them and then Jamie can practice on a film where it doesn't matter?"

"Sounds like a plan," grinned Jake. "Although I think you should have more faith in me."

"I do," countered Lee. "I just thought it would be more fun for Jamie not to worry about trying it out for the first time on something that's important to him."

"Thanks," said Jamie. "That, um, actually does make me feel better."

"Okay then," said Jake, holding out his hand for Lee's film. "Let's get on with the show. Now before I do anything for real, I'm going to show you everything with the lights on, so you can see how it's going to work, and then when you feel like you understand it, we'll do some real developing, okay?"

Jamie and Phillip nodded and followed Jake across the room as if pulled by an invisible thread.

An hour later, the boys were still enthralled with the magic of making pictures out of nothing but light on plastic. Jake had been a patient teacher, explaining each step as he developed Lee's spare film and printed a photo as an example. Now they were all around the enlarger as the boys attempted to print a picture on their own.

"Hey, that's Mom!" said Phillip as the image began to appear on the paper. "That's so cool!"

Slightly panicked that he'd grabbed film left over from a case, Lee leaned over quickly to see that Phillip was right then sighed in relief; it was Amanda but fortunately it wasn't anything suspicious, just her sitting opposite him at a picnic table and from the looks of it, in the middle of either lecturing him or trying to explain something.

"Yeah, it sure is," he said. "I was probably grabbing a few snapshots of her for fun while we were on set."

"This must be a really old film though," said Jamie squinting at it.

"What makes you think that?" asked Lee.

"Her hair's different now. She's wearing her Bombers shirt and I know that got wrecked after it got bleach spilled on it. And she's wearing one of those headband thingies that she used to wear when I was little."

"Wow, you're pretty observant, Kid," said Jake. "You oughta be a detective when you grow up. Or maybe a spy or something." He gave Lee a wink over Jamie's head, his grin widening when Lee glowered back at him.

"Can we take this home for Mom?" asked Phillip. "I know she'd think it was cool."

"Of course, you can," said Jake, pinning the photo up on the clothesline to dry. "Okay, so now you've seen the whole process. What do you say we do Jamie's film now? And this time I'll show you how we make a proof sheet so you can pick which ones you want to print."

"Awesome!" said the boys in unison, turning back to the trays.

Lee moved closer to the drying line, tilting his head to study the picture. Jamie was right – it was an older film, but where on earth had he taken it and why? He picked up the negative roll and held it up, trying to find any clues. It was when he finally spotted the photo of two elderly men playing chess that he remembered.

It hadn't been that long after they'd met, a few months at most and he'd borrowed her station wagon for a stakeout since it was less obvious than his Porsche. Of course, borrowing the car had meant borrowing Amanda as well since she wouldn't have been able to explain its absence to her mother, and that's how they ended up sitting in the park across from Yusuf's apartment building with a picnic basket, because, as always, it had been Amanda who thought of the best way to make them look like they belonged there. He'd run through a roll of test film as he always did to make sure the camera was working – not of anything in particular, just lifting the camera and running off shots of their surroundings, trying to look vaguely like a guy out for a day with his girlfriend, so of course, he had aimed the camera her direction quite a few times. He had to laugh – if past Lee had known what current Lee did, he would have taken a whole lot more pictures. Instead, he'd rolled his eyes at Amanda, done his job and managed to leave an incriminating bit of evidence of her secret life in her car for the boys to find later.

_She'd come to find him at Monk's, still convinced that there was a lot more secrecy in the spy game than he'd let her see._

" _I've got the film." Amanda announced in a confiding whisper as she began digging through her purse._

" _The film?"_

" _Yes." She looked up to see shaking his head in incomprehension. "Don't you remember when you had to do that surveillance job and it was such a rushed-up thing and - and you asked me if you could borrow my station wagon because your car was so conspicuous? Well, you left your film in it. Phillip found it. He was playing with it, but lucky for us, Mother saw him before he started for school, and she asked him what he was doing, so… here it is." She handed him the film and looked at him expectantly. And of course, he'd disappointed her yet again by pointing out that this super secret clue was nothing of the sort._

She'd still been so wide-eyed and innocent back then, even after those first tumultuous months, but despite his best efforts, she'd been his most dependable friend right from the start, no matter what he'd flung at her. Take that case – a few minutes after that conversation, David Benson had appeared at her elbow and tried to sweep her off her feet, but in the end, it was Amanda who had seen through his bluff faster than Lee, recognizing the discrepancy in alimony and taxes and wheedling her way into David's ex wife's confidence as… what had it been? He wracked his brain. _Oh that's right_ , he grinned to himself. _The Census Bureau of Marital Relations._ He glanced over at his stepsons. _I wonder what that Bureau would say about us now._

Jamie noticed him looking and wandered over to stand beside him. "So you've known Mom a long time."

"Uh huh, a few years."

"A lot longer than you've been going out."

"Uh yeah. It took a while for us to get to know each other and get to be friends before we ever started dating."

Jamie studied the photo a little longer. "Really? Why did it take so long?"

Lee made a wry face. "Well, I was kind of a jerk at first – I didn't think I wanted to work with her and I didn't make it easy for her to like me. It took some time until she grew on me, but I'm really glad she never gave up on me."

Jamie stiffened and turned to look up at him. "Oh, I get it now," he said softly. "I should have guessed."

"Guessed what?" Lee asked, confused.

"Hey Jamie – come look at this! It's so cool!" called Phillip from across the room.

Jamie gave Lee one last dark look and stomped off to join his brother.

_What the hell did I do now?_

* * *

Whatever had been bothering Jamie had vanished again once he was back in the thrall of learning more from Jake, but he had still been quieter on the way home than Lee would have liked.

"So you guys had a good day?" Amanda asked at dinner.

"Yeah, I think so," Lee responded, with one eye on Jamie.

"It was awesome!" asserted Phillip.

"Yeah, it was," agreed Jamie, with a bit less enthusiasm.

"Well, your pictures are wonderful, Sweetheart," said Amanda. "You've got a real photographer's eye. And to think you developed them too!"

"Wow, I can't believe we almost forgot!" exclaimed Phillip, dashing from the table and returning with another photo in his hand. "Look what else we did!" he said, thrusting the photo at her. "It was on Mr. Stetson's practice film!"

Amanda took the photo, here eyes widening when she saw the subject. "Wow, that must have been taken a long time ago."

"Yeah, that's what I said," commented Jamie. "Mr. Stetson said so too."

"Did he?" Amanda raised an eyebrow.

"And he said that when you first worked together, he didn't like you," Jamie went on.

"Oh, he did, did he?" Amanda grinned at Lee, whose mouth had dropped open.

"I didn't say that!" he expostulated. "I said I was a jerk sometimes and that you got mad at me a lot. I never meant… I always liked you! You just made me crazy sometimes!" He stopped dead, suddenly aware of the giant hole he was digging himself into.

"It's okay, Sweetheart," said Amanda, leaning over to pat his hand. "I know you like me just fine now."

"I do," he twinkled bask at her. "Very much. It was worth putting up with you back then." He lifted her hand to kiss her fingertips with a wink.

He caught something in his peripheral vision that had him turning his head to look at Jamie, who immediately stared down at his empty plate.

"Tell you what, Jamie" said Lee, reaching for Amanda's plate and his own as he stood up. "How about you and me do the dishes tonight? Since your mom made such a great dinner."

Jamie sighed and nodded, standing up and following him to the kitchen with the rest of the plates. They worked silently for a few minutes, waiting for the sink to fill, then Lee began to scrub, passing them in turn to Jamie to dry.

"Can I ask you something?" Lee asked. He made sure not to turn and look at Jamie, acting as if he was concentrating instead on getting every stain off the plate in his hand.

"I guess so," Jamie shrugged.

"Are you mad at me because I admitted to being mean to your mom sometimes when we first met?"

"No," was the curt reply.

"Then have I done something else to upset you?" Lee asked. "Because you seemed pretty excited about going to Jake's today and I think you enjoyed it, but you've been pretty quiet."

"I did enjoy it," said Jamie. "It was really cool. Thanks for taking us."

"But?" Lee prompted.

"But what?"

"How about 'I enjoyed it but I wish you hadn't been there'? said Lee, pointedly.

"That's not why-" Jamie started to say hotly before stopping dead.

"So there is a reason why," remarked Lee. "Come on, hit me with it. I promise not to get mad if you'll just tell me what I did wrong."

There was a long silence while Jamie dried the plate he was holding and reached for another one from the rack. "I guess… I was having a good time until I realized what you were up to."

"What I was up to?" echoed Lee, complete bemused. "You said last week that you wanted to do something you'd enjoy instead of just always doing what Phillip likes, so we did. That wasn't exactly a secret."

"No, I mean with the photo," muttered Jamie.

Lee did finally turn and look at Jamie, resting his hip in the counter. "You've lost me."

"When you told me about how when you first knew Mom and you didn't like her but then you got to know her and now you're, I dunno, in love or something." Jamie shot him a sideways look. "You were just making stuff up so that I'd be all…" - his voice went into a sing-song higher pitch - "Oh look! Mom and Mr. Stetson didn't like each other at first, just like me, so I should just skip that and get to the part where I think he's great!"

Lee stared at him, then gave off a bark of laughter, before turning back to the sink. "Wow, you are giving me way too much credit for being sneaky," he responded. "I was just trying to bribe you into liking me by doing something you'd like." Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Jamie's expression of amazement at that bit of brutal honesty and grinned down at the dish he was scrubbing.

"You know, your mom told me a little bit about the conversation she had with you about me." Again, he felt Jamie stiffen beside him. "And that works both ways you know. I know you and Phillip will always be more important to her than I am because that's how being a mom works. But if you give me a chance, I think I could get to love you and your brother almost as much as your parents do."

"Yeah right," he heard Jamie mutter under his breath.

"Can I ask you something?" said Lee. "Like up front, honest guy-to-guy question."

"I suppose," Jamie mumbled.

"Are you giving Carrie as hard a time as you're giving me?"

"No, but-" Jamie started to answer, then stopped, staring at Lee. Lee could almost hear the gears turning in his head.

"Another 'but'. That's kinda what I thought," Lee went on. "Why do you suppose that is?"

"I dunno," whispered Jamie, looking miserable.

"Now come on, I think you do," answered Lee. "You just don't like me, right? It's okay – I'm pretty tough. I can take it, but you may as well get used to me because I'm sticking around. And maybe you could at least pretend to like me, so you stop upsetting your mom."

Jamie shifted from foot to foot, not speaking while Lee finished up the last dish. When Lee heard the telltale sound of stifled gulping, he dropped it in the rack and immediately steered Jamie towards the backdoor. "Amanda, we're going for a breath of fresh air. We'll be back!" he called, not stopping for any response. He kept Jamie moving until they reached the gazebo, pushing him down onto the seat.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to upset you. Is it really that bad that I want to be with your mom?"

"It's not you - I'm just being dumb," hiccupped Jamie.

"I doubt that," said Lee, squeezing his shoulder. "You're the smartest kid I know."

"Do you even know any other kids?" Jamie managed to choke out a laugh.

"Okay, you got me there," Lee admitted. "The only other one I know was a math genius so maybe you're the second smartest."

"I met a kid like that once," said Jamie, momentarily distracted. "He won my bike off me in a game but Mom made him give it back."

"Well, he sounds like a bit of a jerk," said Lee, smiling at the memory of Alexi and his gambling skills. "But good for your mom for setting him straight." He was glad to see the conversation had given Jamie time to get his emotions back under control.

"She's pretty great," agreed Jamie.

"She is," nodded Lee.

They were silent for a moment before Lee ventured to ask, "You say it isn't me that upset you, but if it isn't me, is it something I can help out with?"

Jamie sighed. "I just wish everyone would just stop changing."

"Changing how?"

"In everything!" Jamie burst out, throwing his hands in the air. "Dad's getting married again and Phillip's going to a different school next year and even Grandma's getting all hot and heavy with her boyfriend and talking about marrying him."

Lee grasped for the one item he thought wasn't as bad. "Well, you and Phillip have been at different schools before, haven't you? That's not so different."

"Yeah, but our schools were always close together before," replied Jamie. "The high school is on a different bus and it's not anywhere near the school we're at now and he's getting all interested in girls, like _really_ interested, and he doesn't spend as much time at home anymore." He sighed again. "It used to be just us, you know? Me and him or us and Mom and Grandma – and now everyone is off with new people and I'm just… still here."

"Is here so bad?" asked Lee.

"Not here-here," said Jamie, gesturing around them. "I like our house and my neighbourhood and all my friends are here. I meant like everybody else's life is changing and mine isn't, at least not in the good way." He paused. "And I suppose if you and Mom get married, we'll probably move to a different house and I won't even have here anymore."

In an instant, Lee's dream of that house in Rockville evaporated like cotton candy under hot water.

"Well, that's not going to happen," he said. "You know, after I went to live with my uncle, we moved all the time, every time he got transferred and I hated it. I was jealous of kids that got to stay put in one place. Your mom loves this house and it's your home – why would we move?"

Jamie's mouth turned up at the corners a little. "We? So you're saying you're gonna get married, huh?"

Lee nodded. "Well yeah, that's what happens when you love somebody." He searched Jamie's expression. "You gonna be okay with that?"

"Oh, like I get to have a say in it?" Jamie mocked him.

"Not in whether it happens, but it's up to you whether you're going to be mad about it," Lee offered calmly. He gave Jamie a moment to reflect on that before going on. "You know, I really wasn't trying to be sneaky with that picture of your mom today, but it's true that I tried really hard not to like her at first, because deep down, I knew she was going to change my life and I thought my life was pretty good. But she never gave up on me, even just as a friend. She told me when I was being a jerk and then she'd tell me she was still my friend no matter what. She made me a better person and my life really did get better." He snuck a quick glance at Jamie who was staring at the ground. "And I'm not going to try and con you into thinking that it's going to be sunshine and lollipops all the time, but I'd like it if we could be friends like that. You and your brother are everything in the world to your mom and that makes you important to me. So maybe instead of worrying about everyone moving on to new people, you could think of me as the new person for you too?"

"I never thought of it like that," admitted Jamie.

"And you know what else? Even though everyone is moving in different directions, that doesn't mean they care about you any less."

"Mom said something like that too."

"Did she? Told ya she was smart." Lee elbowed Jamie lightly, making him smile, then held out a hand. "So how about we call a truce and you start calling me Lee instead of Mr. Stetson?"

"Yeah, okay." Jamie shook it with a solemn expression. "Shouldn't really call a truce if only one of us was fighting though."

Lee's eyes twinkled down at him. "You're right. Maybe we could call it a non-aggression pact."

"Like they had in World War Two?"

"You know about that?" asked Lee, startled.

"Oh yeah! There was this really cool documentary about it on TV last week," said Jamie enthusiastically.

"Really? I wish I'd seen that. Military history is a big interest of mine – my dad fought in the war, you know, but he died before I was old enough to ask him about stuff. What was the documentary about?"

A few minutes later, Amanda stepped out onto the patio, looking for her missing boys and found them sitting at the picnic table, laying out various battlefield strategies with pebbles from the flowerbed. She smiled and came to rest a hand on Jamie's shoulder.

"Having fun, fellas?" she asked in a light tone.

"Yeah!" said Jamie, shifting a set of pebbles to form a cavalry line. "I was just telling Lee about the time me and Phillip set up the Battle of Khartoum in the den, just when that lady came to judge you for Mother of the Year." He looked up at Lee. "She only told us about that later, but she wasn't mad. She laughed like crazy telling the story."

Amanda and Lee shared a grin over his head, both of them remembering that day.

"Well, of course I wasn't mad," said Amanda ruffling his hair. "I didn't care about winning that – it was enough that you and Phillip thought I was a good mom."

"The best," Jamie corrected her.

"I remember my mom was the same way," said Lee. "I had just started school and I got into trouble for building a fort in the corner and sling-shotting my recess snack at the other kids. She laughed and told me good soldiers don't waste their rations that way. And then she said I should ask my dad to teach me better strategy."

"Your mom sounds pretty great too," said Jamie. "So did you ever do it again?"

"Nah," said Lee, reaching for another pebble and keeping his eyes fixed on his project. He felt Amanda move around the table and come to lean against him; he'd told her that story once, the story of the day his parents died and how he'd thought he'd never be happy again. "I went to live with my uncle pretty soon after and I was around soldiers all the time – it wasn't as much fun when it wasn't make-believe. And he _definitely_ wouldn't have thought it was funny."

"That's too bad," Jamie commiserated. "I'm sorry about your mom."

"Thanks." Lee noted the way Jamie 's eyes shifted to look at Amanda. He couldn't see her face, but he knew she'd be giving him a reassuring smile.

"So if you didn't want to play soldiers anymore, what did you do instead?"

Lee looked up at him. "Oh, by that time it was Davy Crockett and then it was Wyatt Earp and Marshall Dillon. And I still read lots of books about military stuff. That's why I know that you've got this trench running on the wrong angle." He reached out and used his finger to draw a line just off angle from Jamie's pebble trench line. "The British were facing the hill, not the river."

Amanda pushed herself upright and gave Lee's shoulder one last squeeze. "There's dessert inside when you're ready, fellas," she said as she headed to the back door.

"Okay, we'll just be a minute," said Jamie, eyes back on his battlefield. "I just want to show Lee this one last thing."

She stopped in the doorway and looked back at the two heads close together across the table.

"You know, I think _Gunfight at the OK Corral_ is on tv this week," she heard Jamie say shyly. "It's one of my favorites."

"Mine too," Lee replied. "Tell you what: you make the popcorn and I'll bring my cowboy hat."

"You really have one?" asked Jamie.

Lee pretended to look affronted. "My name is Stetson – how would it look if I didn't have a cowboy hat?"

When Jamie whooped with laughter, Amanda headed inside with a lighter heart. _They'll be just fine._


End file.
